Wednesday, February 16, 2011

String brightly coloured lanterns across a hidden laneway, add funky mirrored tables and plastic stools in colours of citrus and lime, and you have Sydney's newest food market, Malaysia Kitchen.

For three days only, Sydneysiders will be able to enjoy a tasting plate of three or four Malaysian dishes for only $10, dining al fresco for a weekday lunch or dinner.

Malaysia Kitchen is part of a global marketing campaign to promote Malaysian cuisine, with events already hosted in London and New York. In Sydney, Malaysia Kitchen has been set up in the narrow alley behind the State Theatre, more often used as an emergency exit by theatre patrons.

Malaysia Kitchen Australia entrance

The discreet entrance on George Street (opposite the QVB) is easily missed, but keep an eye out for the ten-foot high blackboard chalked with the names of participating Malaysian restaurants.

Malaysia Kitchen Australia Food Market

It will cost you ten dollars to enter, but then you simply head straight through for a hawker-inspired meal, supplied by some of Sydney's best Malaysian restaurants. The collage of luscious food photos, plastered all down the corridor, will undoubtedly whet your appetite.

We were seated for dinner, sharing a selection of dishes from each restaurant. When Malaysia Kitchen officially opens tonight, the public will receive three or four small savoury dishes, presented together on a tasting plate.

The team at Sambal preparing sago pudding with gula melaka for dessert

For dessert we moved onto cendol, bubur cha cha, sago pudding and roti tisu. Unfortunately dessert will not be available when Malaysia Kitchen opens to the public.

Roti tisu at Mamak
- the thin dough is grilled to a buttery crisp and sprinkled with granulated sugar

Shaping the roti tisu into a "party hat" on the grill

Twirling the dough into a super thin sheet

Apart from the deliciousness that is Malaysian cuisine, half the fun of this one-off event is eating outside on stools, illuminated by the flicker of tealights and the gentle bob of lanterns overhead. And there's also something mischievously fun about stealing yourself away in a hidden alley of peace and quiet, only metres away from the traffic and chaos of the concrete jungle outside.

Gorgeous photos (as usual), Helen! I definitely love the look of the pisces toast and acar awak, thought it breaks my heart to think of desserts not being available. Ah well, I guess I don't actually live nearby anyway :P

I was soooooo disappointed with this. I stood in line for over 45 mins only for security to put a rope across the line 5 people ahead of me. That's it, all over. No point staying in line anymore cause they arent going to accept any more people.

You'd think after being in New York and London, that this would be better managed. But sorely, no.

Ooh I heard about this and particularly wanted to go and support Sambal. Have to say they're my favourite Malaysian restaurant besides Mamak! :) I hear from Suze's blog that they won't be there though.. was hoping to visit on Friday!! Thanks for the awesome review.. I wonder if Adam and Calvin will be there when I go too... ? :P

Another disappointed person here too - went there last night and got shocked of the queue. The queue was toooo long all the way back as long as to town hall (curved back double queue although)! It should have been done in a larger venue like malaysia festival did in tumbalong park. Ended up going to Chef's Kitchen :(

Love your work helen. I love malaysian food too. Living in Australia there's no excuse to not embrace the diversity of flavours available in this country. Shame that there isn't much option for vegetarians at this event.

Do you know that I've lived in Malaysia for ten years and haven't seen Roti Canai being made by someone who is not of Malaysian-Indian descent.That's quite an unusual sight for me. I've never seen a Chinese-Malaysian and Malay-Malaysian make this before. I've had my share of Malaysian food and delicacies this past decade. I am actually hoping some Australians will do a sausage sizzle over here one day. The sausages here (many pork-free!) are not quite the same.

With such great potential to show off Sydney's lanes like many great cities in the world - including Melbourne - what a pity that this food market was all hidden away and inaccessible even to look at if you were not inside. Black drapes screened the Market street end of the lane :-( Crazy.I was also disappointed to not get to eat food that I love - the queue last night was just waaaay too long - I'm sure many more people than me did not get to eat there.Let's open up more laneways in Sydney and make this happen all the time.

As it was advertised from 6 to 9 we dropped by around 8 to see what is happening and were a bit confused to why we were told it was full as people were leaving the venue. Definitely could have been better managed especially when it is expected to have quite a few people wanting to get in.

We didn't go on opening night, but joined the huge queues at 7pm on the following day. The event went until 9pm, but one of the people working at the event walked down the line and kindly told us we had no chance of getting in before the closing time of 9pm because of where we were in the line and that there were only 80 people inside. I've also spoken to friends who turned up just after 6pm on the following day who had the same experience. I think they over advertised - they were unable to cope with the turnout. We were really disappointed and headed to a proper eat-in restaurant instead. I would argue the event wasn't managed well - perhaps they should have ticketed it online, and ran the event for longer, to avoid the huge queues and disappointment.